KALAMAZOO TOWNSHIP — A Kalamazoo Township home belonging to the township supervisor and her husband could be one of hundreds that become property of Kalamazoo County by the end of March.

Terri Mellinger’s property in the Westwood neighborhood is among more than 850 properties that owe 2008 property taxes and will be foreclosed on by the county treasurer after March 31. A list of all the properties owing 2008 property taxes was published in the Kalamazoo Gazette this month.

But Mellinger, who was elected Kalamazoo Township supervisor in 2008 and makes about $72,000 a year, said she has every intention of paying the back taxes, which with fees and interest totals $5,426.07 for 2008.

“It's not going to be an issue at all,” Mellinger said, referring to making the March 31 deadline. “We're trying to catch up.”

Mellinger said her financial difficulties began in 2005, when she quit her administrative job with Kalamazoo Township to start a web-design business.

At the same time, Mellinger said, she and her husband purchased their current house and were unable to sell their previous one. Property tax records show the Mellingers purchased their Fletcher Avenue home for $169,600 in March 2005. The estimated value last year was $161,400, tax records show.

The business “didn’t take off,” she said, and “we also had two major medical issues that were going on at the same time.”

As the bills piled up, Mellinger said she and her husband discovered that property tax payments that they thought their mortgage lender was making had actually gone unpaid.

“The taxes were supposed to come out of our escrow (payments),” Mellinger said. “But the mortgage company didn't do that.”

The couple filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection in April 2006. In the bankruptcy filing, the Mellingers listed assets of $208,387 and debt of $215,970.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy allows people with regular income to keep their property, adjust their debts, and pay what they owe over time.

Some other bankruptcies, including Chapter 7, allow individuals to wipe out their debt and start over.

“It wasn't that I was trying to skip out on the payments,” she said. “It was the only way we could see to catch up and get everyone paid.”

Mellinger said she expects to exit bankruptcy this year.

The Mellingers still owe 2009 and 2010 property taxes, which total at least $7,000.

She said she’s informed several township officials about the delinquent taxes. She also informed the Kalamazoo County Democratic Party when she filed to run for township supervisor.

“It's not something that I've hidden,” she said.

And Mellinger said she hopes her constituency — some of whom may be struggling with job loss, home foreclosure, mounting medical bills — will be understanding.

“I've walked in their shoes,” she said. “If there's a silver lining in the whole thing that would be it.”